HOW THE CENSOR WORKS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15173, 11 January 1915, Page 3

HOW THE CENSOR WORKS.

IMPORTANCE OF SECRECY

An explanation in regard to the strict censorship now being exercised in' Australia was made last week by tho Federal Minister of Defence, as follows: —

.'•War Precautions, Regulation 10 prescribes that no person shall, without lawful authority, publish any information with respect to tho movement or disposition! of any'"'of tho forces, ships, etc., of his Majesty or the Commonwealth, or any of the Allies, etc. This is equally in force in England. The object is not to withhold, information from tho public, but to prevent information reaching the enemy, which, being gathered together from many quarters, enables them to locate tho whole of our naval and military forces. It is often not realised that information disclosed in Australia can be telegraphed to Germany within a few hours by means of apparently harmless messages, to persons in. v neutral country. Secret codes for thi_- purpose ciin easily be arranged, that almost certainly avoid discovery.

"It is not possible to censor all private communications without gre_t expense, and a good deal of news is obtained verbally from persons arriving from overseas. Whatever the source, unless the text lia-s*actuaUv been passed by a censor, or issued as official news by the Government, it is a direct breach of the law if any newspaper or other publication.} contains the position of any portion of his Majesty's or tho Allies' forces, naval or military, or gives dates on which certain combinations occurred.

"Letters and interviews may state what- 'Private Brown. of the lOoth Regiment, lias seen, and describe incident*; of the war, but names of places, dates, names of other units, or ships, or of senior commanding officers, must be left-blank, unless actually passed by the censor. It is no excuse to say that the incident occurred some time ago. No important information from a reliable source will be withheld by censors without the authority of the Government, but tbey aro justified in .withholding permission from many -sensational statements. emanating from the Press ol" neutral countries, until further particulars come from England. An instance of this was the statement that- 15D.0U0 Russians had become casualties iv one battle, Kubseojiently 'proved to be pure fabrication. •'Only lately the censors experienced the greatest difficulty . in. preventing publication of the *ailin;r of the trait— oorts. which conveyed the Australian Imperial force. Had any damage occurred to our troops, it would have been directly due to the unpatriotic disclosures of 'rt ; w> of .the daily papers. Many letters will shortly be arrivinu; from our soldiers and sailors oversea, aud it is therefore reonested that public s tat -'ment of tin* above reasons may be given with a rec-tiest that all will /upport the eeri-sors. a body of very ]ini*d-workin"- citizen 'officers, who aro doing their best in a difficult ia.**!; for the mutual satetv of the Empire."